Thursday, November 24, 2011
Niche Sites
Those are apparently the key to making money from internet ventures.
Especially the niche sites that generate a lot of traffic or pay well- things like high-profile law would probably net a lot of cash. Mesothelioma ads that you see on TV, insurance salesmen who pressure you to pay the small fee that over time will probably add up to more than you'll pay in repairs (but will save your hide when you need it), and other high-income businesses that rely on a large base of clientele- that's where the money's at, I think.
Maybe part of the CCWK Content Network needs to involve insurance, law, and other expensive niches.
What say you?
Especially the niche sites that generate a lot of traffic or pay well- things like high-profile law would probably net a lot of cash. Mesothelioma ads that you see on TV, insurance salesmen who pressure you to pay the small fee that over time will probably add up to more than you'll pay in repairs (but will save your hide when you need it), and other high-income businesses that rely on a large base of clientele- that's where the money's at, I think.
Maybe part of the CCWK Content Network needs to involve insurance, law, and other expensive niches.
What say you?
Happy Thanksgiving!
Or as some of the more cynical and self-loathing citizens of the US call it, harass-a-Native-American-and-then-eat-too-much day.
I'm having candied yams and garlic oranges and turkey and decadent gravy and good company with the family.
Happy Thanksgiving from the States!
I'm having candied yams and garlic oranges and turkey and decadent gravy and good company with the family.
Happy Thanksgiving from the States!
Monday, November 21, 2011
Promote your site: Raffles.
Raffles, giveaways, contests.
In essence, the idea is to invest a little money and accrue a huge amount of traffic- burst or long-term, depending on what you intend to offer. If you're looking for exposure, you can use a contest to crowdsource a massive amount of back-linking and site-sharing. If you're looking to generate leads for sales, a similar effect can arise from slightly modified tactics.
[ http://www.homebizwomen.com/contest.html ] is a guide you might look at.
In short, you need a few things:
A site for the traffic you'll be creating
A "prize" (prizes, plural, work better) for individuals to compete for
A task that involves a tiny amount of work, but includes the necessity for them to create a link (or more) to your site (whether it be the contest page or the site itself) and encourages them to share the contest with their friends, family, or others who might also enter.
If you make the contest's victory condition(s) merit-based, you need a clear rubric and an objective, third-party evaluator. Easier: make it a raffle. Use something like [ http://random.org ] to pick a winner.
The idea behind this is that (assuming you've already made your website search-engine-friendly) you'll have a large number of people creating an equally large number of links to your site (boosting your search engine ranking), and that same group of people is likely to continue checking back (especially if you have mechanics that reward return traffic and more than one legitimate entry).
An excellent example is SnapSort's community feedback competition. I entered, but didn't win the D3100 or a swagtastic camera-lens-mug. [ contest | winners ]
Important to know: don't skimp on the prize. The more people want it, the more effort they'll put in and the larger a competition you'll create. You get what you pay for (and sometimes much more).
I like free stuff and enter similar competitions on occasion, too- when the prize is right and the competition is easy to enter, it's a no-brainer.
Are you in it to win it?
In essence, the idea is to invest a little money and accrue a huge amount of traffic- burst or long-term, depending on what you intend to offer. If you're looking for exposure, you can use a contest to crowdsource a massive amount of back-linking and site-sharing. If you're looking to generate leads for sales, a similar effect can arise from slightly modified tactics.
[ http://www.homebizwomen.com/contest.html ] is a guide you might look at.
In short, you need a few things:
A site for the traffic you'll be creating
A "prize" (prizes, plural, work better) for individuals to compete for
A task that involves a tiny amount of work, but includes the necessity for them to create a link (or more) to your site (whether it be the contest page or the site itself) and encourages them to share the contest with their friends, family, or others who might also enter.
If you make the contest's victory condition(s) merit-based, you need a clear rubric and an objective, third-party evaluator. Easier: make it a raffle. Use something like [ http://random.org ] to pick a winner.
The idea behind this is that (assuming you've already made your website search-engine-friendly) you'll have a large number of people creating an equally large number of links to your site (boosting your search engine ranking), and that same group of people is likely to continue checking back (especially if you have mechanics that reward return traffic and more than one legitimate entry).
An excellent example is SnapSort's community feedback competition. I entered, but didn't win the D3100 or a swagtastic camera-lens-mug. [ contest | winners ]
Important to know: don't skimp on the prize. The more people want it, the more effort they'll put in and the larger a competition you'll create. You get what you pay for (and sometimes much more).
I like free stuff and enter similar competitions on occasion, too- when the prize is right and the competition is easy to enter, it's a no-brainer.
Are you in it to win it?
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Hosting! Servers! Decisions!
I seem to keep posting things like this.
I'm still looking to get a dedicated server for goofing around with, but prices are expensive for something comparable to Hetzner's EX4. 16 Gigabytes of DDR3, a better processor than what's in my computer or desktop, and a whopping 6 Terabytes of storage. 100Mbps output, and "unlimited traffic" - 10 terabytes followed by a throttled 10Mbps connection. Pretty sweet.
I've been asking around, and I was shocked at prices for domestic machines. The baseline seems to be at least 4 times what Hetzner offers, which is absolutely unacceptable if I am using it as a game server in addition to a web server.
Codero, Hivelocity, and a few others - all of which I think are recognized names - wouldn't touch that price with a thousand-dollar stick. I enjoy the free service provided by Heliohost and x10hosting, though - both providers have excellent service for an ad-free environment, and are consequently excellent for my budget.
I plan on continuing to develop in PHP, whenever I've got the spare time.
This is definitely going somewhere... Where it goes is something else entirely.
I'm still looking to get a dedicated server for goofing around with, but prices are expensive for something comparable to Hetzner's EX4. 16 Gigabytes of DDR3, a better processor than what's in my computer or desktop, and a whopping 6 Terabytes of storage. 100Mbps output, and "unlimited traffic" - 10 terabytes followed by a throttled 10Mbps connection. Pretty sweet.
I've been asking around, and I was shocked at prices for domestic machines. The baseline seems to be at least 4 times what Hetzner offers, which is absolutely unacceptable if I am using it as a game server in addition to a web server.
Codero, Hivelocity, and a few others - all of which I think are recognized names - wouldn't touch that price with a thousand-dollar stick. I enjoy the free service provided by Heliohost and x10hosting, though - both providers have excellent service for an ad-free environment, and are consequently excellent for my budget.
I plan on continuing to develop in PHP, whenever I've got the spare time.
This is definitely going somewhere... Where it goes is something else entirely.
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